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EV Development in Taiwan, Luxgen EV+ and Tesla

Whenever I go to Taiwan I'd rent a car from either IWS or CarPlus. But only recently I discovered that both of them now offer pure electric cars from Yulon Motor: Luxgen MPV EV+, tobe m'car EV and tobe w'car EV. I think it'd be quite interesting and perhaps useful to discuss the island's latest development in EV and what we and our government in Hong Kong can learn from them.

I couldn't find the car's full spec sheet, but on their website it says it has a 150kW electric motor, producing 201hp and 220Nm of torque. Its range seems to be ~114km from other sources.

The Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC) is the establishment responsible for Taiwan's automotive R&D and testing etc. The ARTC EV charging station accepts several mainstream charging interfaces (China GB, Europe IEC Type 1, American SAE and Japanese CHAdeMO) as well as their own Taiwan IDB standard, which includes two types: Type 2A (220 VAC; 32A) and Type 2B (220 VAC; 80A). See here: http://www.artc.org.tw/english/01_testing/05_01detail.aspx?pid=15

I couldn't find a complete list of charging stations/points throughout the whole island at the moment but it seems there're already quite a lot considering how few EVs are out there on the road - See attachment or http://www.lev.org.tw/subsidy/station.aspx

Actually, it's not too big of a surprise since electric bikes/scooters are so common throughout Taiwan as well, unlike in HK which are banned completely.

Then, there're several blog posts I found regarding people's experience with renting the Luxgen MPV EV+. From what I've read, it seems most pure EVs (not many, basically those three above) in Taiwan are not sold but only rented. Below are some of the reviews about renting the Luxgen EV. They're all in Chinese of course so if some Chinese readers can help me translate some to our English readers here it'll be quite helpful.

I'm quite impressed to be honest that they can charge at 80A. For the Luxgen EV that basically charges the car to full in under an hour. For ~114km range, it's still not good enough for longer intercity/county routes (island is 394km north to south) but can be sufficient for metropolitan/city driving, as shown. I also love how they have special Green plates reading 「電動車」 (EV in Chinese) purposely for EVs. Wonder if they allow them to use bus lanes or auxiliary lanes like what they do in Norway For public charging, you can pay by 悠悠卡 (EasyCard) just like what we do with Octopus. (However I have yet to see a vertical standalone EVSE being erected in HK. Most are wall-mounted. There might be some but I haven't seen any)

From what I can see, the Taiwanese administration, both at the central departmental level and the local county/city levels, seem more sincere in promoting EV and is genuinely investing in infrastructure even though there're only so many EVs available on the market there at the moment because they understand that to encourage more EVs on the road you first need to invest in adequate infrastructure and extend the existing technical and legal framework. Not the other way round!

In this year-old post, it was suggested that some spotted an "unknown 4-door sport sedan" which was later confirmed to be a Tesla Model S. It turned out that 華創車電 (HAITEC), an R&D arm of Yulon Motor, brought in a Roadster and a Model S for the obviously reasons. It is worth noting also that, according to ARTC sources about 12% of the parts of Model S are supplied by Taiwanese companies, such as electronics, screens, powertrain components etc. This shouldn't be a surprise though since companies like Hon Hai (Foxconn) produces parts for BMW, Audi, etc and few months ago it got around that they produce for Tesla too.

Actually, it's not too big of a surprise since electric bikes/scooters are so common throughout Taiwan as well, unlike in HK which are banned completely.

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Great info, I had thought why there wasn't any talk about Tesla Motors in Taiwan, now it is more clear. Maybe there isn't such a large difference in registration fees ("FRT") between ICE and EV in Taiwan?

It seems that TM is targeting the countries with the largest EV benefits first - which make a whole lot of sense, of course, like Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Hong Kong. Later, when they have proper mass production going, including batteries, they can throw the GEN III into markets where it can compete directly with ICEs, despite not being credited for being clean.

I tried to rent a Tesla model S last year in Los Angeles, but the cost was the same as renting a Rolls or high end AMG, and limited to 100 miles pr day (otherwise, pay even more). I would imagine this could change soon, more EVs to be rented. It is still a hard find, and when you do find them, they seem quite overpriced as some kind of novelty car.

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